Happiness Challenge Part II

This is attempt numero tres for this week’s blog. Initially, I tackled a few lightweight topics, like “forgiveness” and “living into your soul’s purpose”. Nothing lofty for me, in 800 words or less! Somewhere between looking for inspiration and wanting to go outside, I realized: MY INSPIRATION IS OUTSIDE. So outside I did go, to indulge in the deliciousness of this long-awaited spring; for me, that means mowing, biking and walking.

It is infrequent in these past four years of my weekly postings that I have tap-danced between topics. By the way, all the blogs live on my website, www.coacharuni.com/blog, good for the 2:00 a.m. insomniac amongst us—and I know you are out there. But do check them out—I find it fascinating to hear how the strategies and practices over the years have stayed the same, while my voice, my relationship to them, has changed.

Since Ayurveda teaches us that repeated like behavior leads to imbalance and that unlike behavior takes us toward balance (Type A people out there, you do not need to do Type A yoga!), I am leaning toward less words this week. No forgiveness or soul’s purpose for me, not now, not this week.

And since response to last week’s Happiness Challenge (check it out if you did not read) was so full-hearted, here is what you have been waiting for:

Happiness Challenge Part II.–Springtime

Last week I suggested that, for many of us, our tendency is to lean away from happiness, to participate in our own oppression. Whatever form that takes for each of us (work, worry, the world, food, focusing on others, did I say worry?), happiness is available. This practice is not to transcend the feelings, the hurt and heartbreak, the difficult and the disappointing. The way to the happiness is through these very feelings—they are the gateway drugs to full living.

As a practice, leaning away from the habitual behavior and leaning toward that which we choose to have in our life becomes our spiritual practice, one that can change the brain, the body, and behavior. In that light, it is our responsibility to create the circumstances in which happiness can occur. With glorious spring as our backdrop, exploding colors and soft emerald grasses, what better time to practice? Surely in a few weeks, we may not notice spring in the same way, it’s first bliss inevitably diminished by time. To draw on spring as the palette for our happiness practice, here are the details of this week’s challenge. Here is my invitation, first to myself—

FOR THIS NEXT WEEK, I AM CHOOSING:

To be outside each day, as much as I can.

To do some physical outdoor activity (walk, bike, mow) daily.

To breathe deeply into the spring air.

To notice on purpose the gift of spring.

To become aware of the moments that fling the doors of my heart open.

To document those heart-bursts, with picture, word, sentence, and to share it with another.

Here is my documentation from yesterday afternoon. Zac and I walked by the wetlands, clouds and earth and sky, all one. This moment made me uber-happy!

Will you join me? Take the Happiness Challenge II outside, let spring be the playing field. Get out there, smell and feel, notice and absorb. Document the moments that burst your heart open. Take a pix, write a sentence, breathe it in. Share it with another, share with me. Send the pictures onward, social media, to loved ones. Share the happiness.

That’s the Challenge II.

Live into and love those springtime moments.

Be there for them.

And then, pass them on.

As always, please feel free to keep in touch. I am aruni@rnetworx.com As spring blossoms, let’s blossom our awareness of her glory; let’s partner with her in opening our hearts to this energy of renewal and rebirth.